Côte d’Ivoire has launched Tradepost, a new digital trade platform, aiming to position the country as a primary hub for cross-border e-commerce within West Africa.
The platform was unveiled in Abidjan on Monday, December 1, 2025, at a regional workshop on developing an ECOWAS-wide e-commerce ecosystem.
The ceremony was presided over by Assoua Raymond, cabinet manager at the Ministry of Digital Transition and Digitalisation, on behalf of minister Ibrahim Kalil Konaté.
According to Raymond, Tradepost aims to modernise customs and logistics processes, speed up document verification, and provide Ivorian small and medium-sized businesses with direct access to regional and global buyers.
“The platform responds to long-standing bottlenecks that have slowed West African trade integration issues such as paperwork-heavy border procedures, fragmented digital systems, and the high cost of moving goods between ECOWAS states,” he said.
Raymond stressed that Tradepost is not merely a technology upgrade but a strategic economic lever intended to boost competitiveness and expand market access for local businesses traditionally sidelined by complex export procedures.
Behind the initiative lies nearly a decade of regional efforts to digitize trade. ECOWAS first began pushing for a harmonized digital marketplace in the mid-2010s, inspired by the success of East Africa’s Single Customs Territory.
Côte d’Ivoire, one of the region’s fastest-growing digital economies, has since invested heavily in customs automation and logistics reforms, including earlier systems such as SYDAM World and the Single Window for Foreign Trade.
Tradepost builds on these reforms by integrating real-time tracking, digital payments, and SME on-boarding tools into a single interface.
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